Posts tagged Pets

Nathan loves puzzles. Loves them! And apparently, he wants our cats to love them as well because a few days ago, Nathan was sitting on the floor, trying to teach my cat Andrew how to put a puzzle together.

“Okay, Andrew. It goes like this,” he said as he manipulated some of the pieces. Andrew looked away, so Nathan put the puzzle piece under Andrew’s nose. “See?” he said. Andrew turned his head back towards Nathan and patiently watched as he put the puzzle piece back on the floor. After a few more minutes, Andrew twitched his ears, licked his paw, then got up and sauntered away.

“Wait! Come back, Andrew!” Nathan called after him. Andrew meowed. “Please, have a seat,” he said as he patted the floor. Andrew meowed again and decided to humor the little human. He waddled over to Nathan, sat down, licked his chops, and watched patiently.

Andrew, enjoying a brief stay under the tree. We caught him trying to poop under there one day (we’ve been having a year-long problem with him pooping outside the litter box) so we had to block it off with a fence to prevent him from getting under there.

I love this cat, but I’m about done with him. I’m sick and tired of dealing with poop every day. Just go to the fucking litter box already. We even bought this really expensive litter called Cat Attract, which has really high ratings with effectiveness. All the reviews I read practically gushed with awesomeness and how the owners of the cats were pleasantly astounded that there was something out there that got their cat back to using the litter box. So we tried it.

FAIL.

If anything, it made the pooping worse. The day the litter arrived, he pooped in the box the litter came in, so we had high hopes that this stuff would be powerful enough to attract him to the litter box. After all, just the lingering smell in the shipping box was enough to get his bowels moving.

Nope.

That night, he took SEVEN SHITS on the floor and peed on the tile in the back room. We’ve had a fecal test and a urinalysis done, and both came back normal. We’ve tried multiple different cat litters, added an extra litter box, clean them every day, removed the hoods off two of the boxes, changed cat food, tried punishing him, tried ignoring it (which made it even worse), tried giving him even more affection (which was worse than just ignoring it)… I’m seriously at my wit’s end with this.

SERIOUSLY.

Why, you ask? Well. Let me tell you. He poops in high-traffic areas where it will be seen such as in the hallways and places where I have STEPPED in it. He’s pooped in front of Nathan and my child PLAYED in it.He’s pooped on the couch, on the pillows on the couch, on the hoods of the litter boxes, in his favorite cat beds, on his scratching posts, under the cat tree, beside the water bowl, beside the food bowl, in Nathan’s time-out corner, right beside our shoes as well as ON Paul’s shoes, beside as well as ON his cat toys, in front of the front door… I’M DONE. I’m SO done.

Now, I’m no vet, but I really think he’s marking. I think Andrew is highly insecure and jealous of Nathan… and not to mention, one of our other cats, Meeper, has been trying to “dominate” Andrew, which is just a burr in his side and exacerbates the problem.

So I tried sequestering him in a small room to get him reacquainted with his territory and with the litter-box.

FAIL.

He left me 9 blobs of poop to clean up. His pooping is very calculated and deliberate. Whenever he’s about to go, he starts exhibiting behavior which alerts us to what he’s about to do. He sniffs around for a spot, hunches over on all fours and contracts his muscles… he is not losing control of himself. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. So most of the time when I see him about to go, I grab him and put him in the litter box. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

I want to give him away, but I can’t do that in good conscience without disclosing his pooping problem. And if he’s marking then relocating him will only make it worse. And not only that, but I am a really nice person. I’m a huge animal lover and a supporter of animal welfare (not animal rights… big difference). And even me, being the animal lover that I am, find myself resisting the urge to throw him out the door and let him take his chances with our busy road. It’s my first reaction when I get up in the morning and have to clean up SIX-EIGHT PILES OF CRAP. Too bad he’s been an indoor cat all his life or I would just give him to someone who could keep him outside. Also, I am OCD when it comes to germs and cleanliness so after I clean the poop up, I then disinfect the area. It takes a while. It’s hard not to get pissed off, ya know? So how could someone who doesn’t have nine-years of loving history with with this cat be able to handle his problem without losing their patience?

So we will be taking him to the vet soon. I think we have one more option- a feline anti-depressant. That is my absolute last resort. I don’t know what else to do… and Paul and I believe the core issue is that Andrew has become a highly insecure and jealous cat now that Nathan’s in the picture. As much as I don’t want to put him on medication, it’s my last resort for the sanity of everyone in this family.

I just want him to be his happy, poop-free little self again. The only reason we’ve been putting up with this for so long is because we remember how cool he used to be. He’s such a conversationalist and more like a dog than a cat. He even used to sit really cool… like a human with his little belly splayed out. He loves belly scratches and has even let me use him as a pillow. He rarely shows his belly anymore.

Now when Paul or I try to love on him and pet him, immediately when we’re done, he takes a big ole dump right beside us. And he still poops when we ignore him. We are damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

Love, love, love this video about shelter pets by the Shelter Pet Project, which is a public service ad campaign promoting awareness of all the love that shelter pets have to offer. If you’re planning on getting a pet soon, please think about the ones in shelters first!

I was sitting on the floor, camera in hand, watching Nathan interact with my cat Andrew. We’ve really been working with him on being gentle to the cats and not hurting them. So as I was watching him, he held his hands up to Andrew and said, “High five, Andrew!”